March 8th, 2019

John P. Smith and Allard de Graf in the Mayor’s Residence, Prague April 2018

We have just received the sad news that our member, John P. Smith passed away last week in London, England. In spite of battling cancer, he attended our Yearly Meeting last year in Prague because as he said, “there is no point in sitting around feeling sorry for myself”. John was a great asset to both the world of glass and chandeliers. In addition to being a founding member of our organization, he was a Fellow of Corning since 2000, where he supported both their glass and library collection, a vetter at the TEFAF antique shows in Maastricht, Holland, the chairman of The Glass Circle publication, director of glass at Mallet & Sons, and the author of books and publications on English glass and lighting. Actually, to say he was an ‘author’ is not enough – in other publications on glass and chandeliers, he is frequently mentioned as a source of information and many thanks are owed to him for sharing the knowledge he had gained through more than 50 years of study in the field.

He had already registered his intention to attend our meeting this year in Venice and he will be sorely missed. As one of the only other members with English heritage, I always made a point of spending as much time as possible with John at our meetings. In what little time that we had, he managed to impart some of his knowledge and passion for glass and chandeliers to me, and I was honoured to have had his attention. As they would say in England, “He was a scholar and a gentleman”.

At the next Fellows Meeting in Corning in May, they plan to make a memorial presentation about John. If anyone has images that they would like to share, they are invited to forward them. I will forward the photo shown here of John with Allard de Graf, sitting in the Mayor’s residence in Prague and taken last April during our meeting.

Welcome!

Everyone is warmly invited to submit articles and tips to historically interesting chandeliers and other lighting objects to us. Tips to publications, books or exhibitions are also very welcome. These reports and suggestions are to be forwarded to our secretary at: office(at)lightandglass.eu